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About Northern Kingdoms - A Witcher Larp
Northern Kingdoms is set during the events of the third Witcher game but instead of focusing on the the exploits of one person our story is of a mercenary company who fight for the Northern Kingdoms against the empire of Nilfgaard during the third Nordling-Nilfgaardian war.
Our aim is to bring to life the immersive and dynamic world of the Northern Kingdoms for our players and provide a deep and immersive roleplay experience.
We approach this with a rule set that emphasizes role play over rules where your role play can get around some of our rules. This is done through a reward system that grants fate coins, these coins can be handed over to a referee in order to "break the rules" within reason.
How to we run the event?
As a mercenary you will be paid with in character money each time you attend an event, call it a salary. This is the initial plot reason for your character to join the free company. Throughout the course of the event we run out multiple plots with general plots for any player to get involved with or more specific plot tailored to your character personally, your character class or Kingdom.
Some quests come in the form of contracts which, just like in the Witcher games, are pinned to the camp notice board.
The contracts pinned to the notice board reward players with additional in character money and resources which they can use to buy and make items, potions and armour improvements.
Our rules system is pretty straight forward and uses very few combat calls which other more rules based game systems use to communicate the effects of damage and magic effects. The only calls that players use are Witcher sign magic and becasue Witchers are rare then these calls are kept to a minimum.
Magic cast by sorcerers, sorceresses and druids is done through role play.
The caster must, through the use of role play, communicate the effects of the spell they cast without directly telling the spells target the exact effect(s) and the recipient decides how it affects them but to ignore a cast spell is frowned upon. Both caster and recipient can gain fate coins for role playing out the spell and its effect(s).
Crafting
For those who are interested we have crafting systems for both potions and items. Crafting requires a crafting diagram for the item, resources to make the item, time to make it and the facilities to make the item.
In the case of potions we have an alchemy lab and for items we have a working forge.
Crafted items and potions will have mechanical effects on your characters such as improving your armour, oiling weapons to harm monsters and healing the wounded.
Why do we do it?
We run Northern Kingdoms because we are avid fans of the Witcher genre and love live action role play. So back in 2017 we decided to take the leap from players to organisers. With so many fantasy LARP systems curretnly being ran in the UK we decieded to run a game based in the World of the Witcher but not solely aimed at Witchers. The Witcher School in Poland already does this and we wanted to do something different. With permission from CD Projekt RED we embarked on the path we now walk.
We are always in awe of the quality of costume and weaponry in Larp systems on the European continent and strive to reach those high standards and we approach that aim not by judging players by the quality of their costume but be encouraging them with prizes. At the end of each event we issue a prize for the player who has most impressed the team and the crew with their costume and role play, previous winners also assist us in determining who will win this prize. So far the prizes have been beautifully crafted drinking horns carved with event number and Witcher wolf logo. We have also awarded prizes for the best in character tent setup.
Where do we run our games?
We do not have a permanent site, instead we research sites around the UK which suit our needs. These sites need to be as immersive as possible so we try to put our player base away from modern buildings as much as possible. Out of site and out of mind.
We do need modern infrastructure though to run our games so we do endeavor to get sites with hot running water, drinking water and toilets. But immersion is our top priority.
So far we have held events near York, BArnsley and in South Wales with intention to run future event near Birmingham and further south so we improve accessibility to our game fairly.
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